It’s February and already, according to a number of statistical sources, around a quarter of us have failed to uphold our New Year’s resolutions.

Interestingly, 39% of people in their twenties achieve their resolution each year compared to only 14% of people over 50. That’s interesting given the prevailing attitudes towards younger generations.

In the same vein, marketers are mapping out the conversations they want to have this year to stay ahead of the curve. Given the influx of ‘2014 Trends’ in January, I thought it would be a useful point to review the best and highlight a few that might follow New Year’s resolutions.

I spoke at an event last week looking at the role of programmatic in VOD and its suitability for building brands in a digital environment.

There were a number of people speaking about creating more brand based measurement, data consolidation, using client site and CRM data and the rise of programmatic as a fundamental future facing model for all media buying.

While I agree that programmatic is best viewed as opportunity trading and currently somewhat disconnected from the planning and brand strategy teams, I was struck by the lack of discussion about the role of attribution technology in aligning the true value of programmatic media with an agreed end conversion point.

My recent blogs on content and data have led to subsequent conversations about the role of content within RTB (real time bidding). In particular, how the recent announcements from Google, concerning programmatically served content, will play out over the next 18 months.

It's important when dazzled with new announcements from tech megabrands in particular to get perspective. To help set the context, here's a recap of my experience of the rise of programmatic media.